News of the Day From Around the World

1Hong Kong protests: Police said they arrested three men Saturday for testing homemade explosives that they suspect were intended for use during protests. The arrests are the latest in a rash of explosives-related cases police say they’ve uncovered since protests erupted in June over a proposed extradition law and snowballed into an anti-government movement. Police suspect they may have been intended for use against officers. The police force has fired nearly 16,000 tear gas rounds and made more than 6,000 arrests during the six months of pro-democracy demonstrations that have at times been marked by violent clashes and vandalism of government buildings, transit hubs and commercial spaces.

2 Libya fighting: Heavy fighting raged over the past 24 hours between rebel commander Khalifa Hifter, who is attempting to take control of the capital Tripoli, and an array of militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported government based there, officials said Saturday. The fresh bout of fighting comes after Hifter, the leader of the self-styled Libyan National Army, declared Thursday that the “zero hour” of the battle for Tripoli had begun, nearly eight months since he began his offensive to take the city. The fighting has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence on the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy. In the chaos that followed, the country was divided, with a weak U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli and a rival government in the east aligned with the LNA.

3 Volcano victims: A second land search of New Zealand’s volcanic White Island on Sunday failed to locate the bodies of the last two victims of an eruption that claimed the lives of at least 15 people, most of them tourists. Two four-person teams — wearing heavy protective clothing and using breathing apparatus — were able to search for only 75 minutes. They later underwent decontamination after being exposed to toxic ash and gases.

4Insider attack: At least one member of an Afghan militia opened fire on his fellow militiamen early Saturday in central Ghazni province, killing nine, in what the country’s interior ministry called an insider attack, an Afghan official said. The Taliban, however, claimed the attack was actually a coordinated insurgent assault on the checkpoint where the shooting took place, killing over two dozen militiamen, according to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy, but the Taliban often exaggerate their claims. The Taliban now control or hold sway over half the country. Insider attacks have been steady throughout the 18-year conflict, with U.S. and NATO troops most often targeted. But when Afghan security forces are targeted, the casualty rate is often much higher.

5Evidence of abuse: The brutality of the Chilean police’s response to the country’s unrest is leading to sweeping calls for the force’s reform. The protests, which started two months ago over an increase in subway fares and quickly morphed into a broader reckoning over inequality, included peaceful gatherings and violent confrontations with the police that resulted in thousands of instances of abuse, according to the National Institute for Human Rights, an autonomous state agency. Almost 400 of the incidents documented by the group are of torture and cruel treatment. Another 194 involve sexual violence, including four rapes. More than 800 involve excessive use of force by police. The institute has labeled at least six killings by security forces as homicides.